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painters. The fresco in its aesthetic, lyrical and idylic appeal is in no way less charming than the bathing scenes of nudes by Piccasso or Matise.
GHUMMAR NRITYA:
This is a typically Rajasthani folk-dance. It is regularly performed by women at the time of festivals such as marriage, 'melas', 'Dipavali', 'Holi', and other auspicious occasions. The grace, movement and joie de vivre with which the painter has invested the whole composition is remarkable. The oval of movement created in the rectangular space is a masterly schematic arrangement. The fresco, a little damaged, has not lost its pristine charm.
THE TWO COMPANIONS:
These two ladies of the harem, one a Hindu and the other a Muslim, recognisable from their dress, are going together, supporting themselves on each other's shoulders, in a drunken mode which their big lotus eyes reflect, with a flask of wine and wine-cup in their hands, to a tryst. The composition is linear with an emphasis of dark patches of colour and tone on the bodice and skirt of the Hindu Rajasthani woman. The delineation of the Muslim woman shows the form with proper modulations. The Nagaur fresco painters rely more on their ability of linear delineation than on the noted values.
MORAPRIYA:
Lady with a peacock. A fresco on the wall of an open verandah of the inner courtyard of the Fort, executed rapidly in a popular folk-style. She is, it seems, giving protection to her garden-pet from the wild chase of some animals or a hunter. The brush-strokes on her check-patterned petticoat are executed in a fresh and sketchy technique, but they are executed with definite understanding of the form. The four flowering plantain trees, painted in the back-ground in a few deft strokes, is a set idiom of the artist to show a garden.
LADY PLAYING WITH A 'CAKRI':
The fresco is an interesting one in that it presents us a tribal type seen in Rajasthan. The figure looks more like a Kanjar woman in her mode of dress. The jacket of the woman, divided into two parts, the upper one covering the breasts; and the lower one the belly and the abdomen, is of particular interest. The round forehead and the sloping skull are the characteristic racial features of
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